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Ms. Randol denied doing that. She said she was only trying to point out that Mr. Courtright, the city tax collector whose office Mr. Walsh served as solicitor, isn't following the law by having a solicitor and mixing money.

The two Democratic mayoral candidates engaged in this tough bit of political infighting Tuesday night at the end of a 90-minute debate at the University of Scranton - a debate that had been mostly feud-free until then.

Fellow Democratic candidates Lee Morgan and Joseph Cardamone stayed out of the fray.

Mr. Walsh died April 23 after a long battle with cancer.

Ms. Randol never named him, but it was her criticism of Mr. Courtright that set off the controversy. She pointed out Mr. Courtright had continued mixing collected tax revenues bound for the coffers of the city, Lackawanna County and the Scranton School District.

The state law governing the office requires separating each government's funds in different accounts, and auditors have recommended that, too. Mr. Courtright has said that could take more staffing than he has and he is trying to determine if taxes would also have to be separated by category - real estate, business privilege, mercantile and local services taxes, among other things.

Ms. Randol said mixing the funds violates the law and constitutes a misdemeanor offense.

"I was hoping we wouldn't go down this road. It's been this way since 1929," Mr. Courtright shot back, referring to the mixing of funds. "Attorney Walsh has looked at it and he has more integrity in his little finger than some people have in their entire body."

Mr. Courtright said he could "go negative, too."

"I could ask Ms. Randol why did Kathleen Kane fire her, ask Ms. Randol why she's had all these jobs ... I could ask why she put in the paper that she works for L.R. Costanzo when she doesn't. I think we need to stick with the issues, and we need to leave it at that."

Ms. Randol left as campaign manager of the attorney general campaign of Kathleen G. Kane in December 2011, though neither she nor Ms. Kane said she was fired. Ms. Randol said afterward that she resigned her job at L.R. Costanzo Co. Inc., a construction firm, to run for mayor and always acknowledged that.

In her own rebuttal, Ms. Randol said she was only addressing the tax office's operation.

"The idea that this is the way it has always been done is not the solution that anyone needs to hear," she said. She accused Mr. Courtright of failing to purse delinquent mercantile and business privilege taxes.

Moments later, in her closing statement, she said that two hours before the debate, the Courtright campaign notified her of a negative advertisement it planned to deploy, she said.

"It is unfortunate that it has taken this particular turn," she said.

Mr. Courtright, who had the last word during the debate, said he felt obligated to defend Mr. Walsh, who "is not here to defend himself."

He called Mr. Walsh, whom he hired as solicitor upon taking office in 2010, "a man of great integrity." Despite his illness, Mr. Walsh did not take health or life insurance through the office and worked tirelessly to resolve pending tax cases, he said.

"Anybody who knows Mark Walsh knows he was a man of integrity. I'm just upset that his name would be dragged through the mud here tonight," Mr. Courtright said.

After the debate, Mr. Courtright said the threat Ms. Randol referred to was his campaign giving her notice that it might use her picture in an advertisement late in the campaign, a requirement of state law.

"So that's what we did," he said.

Ms. Randol said the notice Mr. Courtright gave was of a negative advertisement targeting her.

"They said they were going to run them," she said.

She denied attacking Mr. Walsh.

"No, absolutely not, this has nothing to do with individuals and positions. It goes back to the larger question of if we're going to look at doing things differently, we need to look at what the law was," she said.

The flap overshadowed a debate that had focused mostly on issues.

Mr. Cardamone said he wants to be the mayor because he has the experience, education and passion for the job. Mr. Morgan said he wants the job because he has spent 25 years following city council meetings and watching the city ignore its home rule charter.

"I have really great ideas from going to all those meetings," he said. "I have a plan to turn it around."

Mr. Courtright said he would fight blight and drugs; Ms. Randol said she would target the health care and biomedical sectors to produce more jobs.

The primary election is Tuesday.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@ timesshamrock.com

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